Day 21 – Saturday 14th May 2011 – Springfield IL – Rest day

Despite today being a rest day, we awoke early to the sound of rain outside. It was cool and very wet.

Breakfast at the hotel was a leisurely affair and included eggs, sausages, biscuits & gravy, donuts, muffins, waffles, cereal, yoghurt, fruit juice, coffee and soft drinks. Some riders talked of going back later for a 2^nd breakfast. We just made a mockery of it the first time to save going back again.

Nothing was really within walking, especially with the rain. However, the rain eased a little mid-morning so we wandered down to the local shopping mall and around a few shops. It was not very big and this only took just over an hour or so. We stopped at McDonalds for a hot drink and a burger for lunch on the way back to the hotel as the rain set in again.

For the rest of the afternoon we wandered briefly around the hotel and then studied the weather and movie channels on TV. Neither were very inspiring.

The hotel has a 5:30pm “Kickback” with free food and drink. This was packed with people and with chippies, pretzels, salad, carrots, celery, nacho chips, baked potatoes, macaroni cheese, American hotdogs along with beer, wine and soft drinks, it was more than sufficient for dinner.